Among Thieves
Douglas Hulick
Publisher: Roc
Date: April 5, 2011
Among Thieves was absolutely great. A fun book from start to finish, and I'm excited for more. Wow, I guess I jumped the shark there. Let's start with the blurb from Amazon.
Drothe has been a member of the Kin for years, rubbing elbows with thieves and murderers in the employ of a crime lord while smuggling relics on the side. But when an ancient book falls into his hands, Drothe finds himself in possession of a relic capable of bringing down emperors-a relic everyone in the underworld would kill to obtain.
Douglas Hulick has a difficult road ahead of him for guys like me, guys that love The Lies of Locke Lamora, and are always excited to find more books like it. At the same time, that excitement always comes with a certain amount of anxiety, as I start to worry that the book will just pale in comparison to my favorite loveable rogue book of all time, and that I'll be left disappointed.
So, let's just get right to it, then. As far as Setting goes, I'd have to say that Among Thieves wasn't quite on par with The Lies of Locke Lamora. However, I say this in the same way that I say The loaded baked potato from Big Bob Gibson isn't quite on par with the loaded baked potato from Jim N Nicks. Big Bob makes a hell of a baked potato, and Douglas Hulick's Ildrecca is a very well-written setting that has a life of its own and that I can get a feel for in my head with very little effort.
Character-wise, Drothe is in some ways more easy for people to identify with than Scott Lynch's Locke. Where Locke is brilliant, with a mind for thieving and an almost supernatural ability to pull of huge schemes, Drothe is...well, not. Drothe is very average, at most everything. He's a pretty good fighter, but not great. He's fairly smart, but by no means brilliant. He has a magical ability, but it's a hindrance almost as much as a help for a great part of the book.
Drothe is one of those guys that is absolutely surprised every time something great happens to him. His best quality is probably that he never gives up, and keeps working at it until he gets what he was looking for. In short, he's a great character.
The book's plotting was solid. The pacing was excellent, and I felt like even the scenes that were slower were filled with a certain dread. I was just waiting for something terrible to happen that would force the main character's hand, and that made those scenes with lots of description and information very smooth and easy to handle. I don't think that there was anything mind-shattering about the plot of Among Thieves, but there weren't any holes that immediately jumped to the forefront, which is a compliment in and of itself. It was solid, and let the great characters and setting do their thing.
Among Thieves gets a 9/10. What can I say? I've got a thing for loveable rogues, and Drothe, and therefore Among Thieves, works for me.
I LOVED
- Drothe - He's an average Joe, and that's the best thing about him.
- Ildrecca is alive and kicking. Looking forward to seeing more of this world
- Thieves! There are thieves! Did I mention that people steal things? Yeah, like the thieves.
- Do I HAVE to put something here? Well, I thought that Drothe's boss was a little wooden. So yeah, there's that.
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I've been hearing great things about Hulick, sounds like I better put this on my reading list. I too have a thing for loveable rogues. In fact, they don't even have to be loveable, I'll still love 'em.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed this book. A great fun read.
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